The vegetarian Italian hard cheese is made from 100% Italian milk originating from the co-operative’s very own dairy herds. Matured on wooden shelves to deliver a fruity flavour and ‘excellent’ texture, giving an authentic taste of Italy.
Aldo Bosco, CEO, Granarolo Group UK explained: “Italian cuisine has always been a consumer favourite with classics consistently in the top 20 most purchased menu dishes, but in the last year there has been a significant rise in pizza and pasta consumption*. This love of Italian food has sparked a real interest in more authentic dishes, as well as demand for provenance, creating an opportunity for those chefs who want to raise the bar when it comes to their Italian cooking.
“We are excited to be bringing our vegetarian Quattrocento Italian Hard Cheese to the UK and to help chefs at a time when consumer expectation for quality is so high. The pressure to offer vegetarian options and clean food has never been greater, the launch will allow operators to do just this simply by swapping their regular hard cheese to Quattrocento.”
Perfect grated over classic Italian dishes or as the finishing touch to salads, Quattrocento Italian Hard Cheese has ‘performed well’ in busy kitchens.
Handcrafted by the Casaro Master Cheesemaker, this cheese is made by gently warming the milk in the copper Caldaia to produce twin wheels of Quattrocento Cheese. Each wheel contains more than 400 litres of fresh milk sourced straight from Granarolo’s 700 dairy farms.
Bosco added:
“As a dairy co-operative animal welfare is at the heart of all we do. By owning the supply chain we have a farm-to-fork story and can guarantee that Quattrocento cheese is made with know-how and typical Italian passion, from caring for our cows to cheese making and maturation on wooden shelves. For chefs and their kitchens, our authentic Italian Hard Cheese really delivers on every level.”
Quattrocento Italian Hard Cheese is available now in 150g and 1kg wedges, 500g tray of shavings and 500g grated bag. This clean-label cheese is free of lysozyme and preservatives, and suitable for vegetarians, is naturally lactose-free and is rich in nutrients such as calcium and protein.